


A Field Full Of Color, But The Only Color I See Is You

by Anasten27



Series: Of Windy Days at the Ocean [6]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Butterflies, Crushes, F/M, Flowers, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, One-Sided Crush, Picnics, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 15:20:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18501682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anasten27/pseuds/Anasten27
Summary: Ven looked at Aqua and she gave a very small nod with an encouraging smile. He looked over at Terra and he did the same. He took a deep breath."Hey, Kairi!" She looked up at him and tilted her head. "Wanna see something really cool?""Sure! What is it?" she asked.He winked at her. "It's a surprise!" He got up from his seat, grabbing a blue bag as he did. "Follow me!"(In which the Wayfinder trio and the Destiny duo have a picnic, but Ven has a special surprise planned for Kairi.)





	A Field Full Of Color, But The Only Color I See Is You

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you like one sided crushes, 'cause they sure are fun to write! I love making Ventus suffer.
> 
> Please look up the flowers mentioned here! I spent a long time trying to find some that were 1) wild flowers, 2) spring season ones, and 3) pretty.
> 
> Also how the heck did I manage to write like 6000 words.
> 
> Thank you Tali for beta reading! You're the best!

Kairi looked herself over in the mirror one last time. She made sure her hair was in place and she smoothed out some wrinkles on her purple sundress. She and Riku had been invited over to the Land of Departure by Aqua.

She was pretty excited to go. It had been a while since she had last seen their friends. They were all so nice! She couldn't wait!

She heard a knock on her front door so she hurried over, taking her little purse with her. She opened it, greeting her best friend as she closed it behind her.

"So? What do you think?" She asked him as she showed off her new dress.

"You're looking pretty cute today, good job." He said smiling. He gave her a thumbs up with his free hand, the other one clutching a yellow bag.

"What do you mean 'today'?" She punched his arm lightly. "I always look cute."

He chuckled at that. "You're right. My bad, sorry. You look as cute as always."

"Thank you very much." She said as she turned and started to walk. "Is it my turn or yours to drive the gummiship today?"

"I think it was yours now last time I checked." He answered as he followed her down the road.

"Great!" She cracked her knuckles. "Get ready for some somersaults today!"

His expression quickly morphed from a perfectly calm one to a horrified one. "You know what? I changed my mind, I'll drive today." He quickened his pace, getting ahead of her.

"What?! No way! You can't do that!" She ran after him. "The turn system is a mutual agreement we have written on paper, you can't change it whenever you please!"

"Yes I can because I," he dangled the gummiship keys on his fingers, "have the keys."

"Oh yeah? Well guess what, genius." She summoned Destiny's Embrace. "I have keys too!" She shot a blizzard spell on the floor in front of her and started sliding on it, getting ahead of Riku to try and get to the ship first.

"That's cheating!" He screamed as he started to run.

"Says the man that wanted to keep me from my driving rights!" She screamed back.

The feeling of the wind against her face and the thrill of being chased was great. She really needed more of this feeling in her life, to spice things up a little from time to time.

She got to the beach a few minutes later and unlocked the gummiship before the silver haired boy got to it. She rushed inside and sat down on the pilot seat. A moment after that the boy ran in to come face to face with a very smug redheaded girl. He sighed and tossed her the keys.

"Please don't fly against an asteroid." He slumped against the chair to her right.

"Can't make any promises." She put the keys in and turned the engine on. "Remember to smile or the ship won't work!"

He grinned and shook his head. She blasted off towards the stars... Towards their friends.

 

Ventus paced in the kitchen while Aqua finished taking some muffins out of the oven. He had been nervous all morning and had tried various activities to distract himself, but none of them had calmed him down. Cleaning up his room, helping Aqua cook, carving little wooden figures with Terra, he even tried reading. None of it worked.

"Don't forget to breathe, Ven." Aqua told him as she put some frosting on the muffins. "I don't want you passing out anytime soon."

He sat down on a chair at the little table in the kitchen. "I don't know what to do, Aqua. I've been so anxious all day, I just wanna run against a wall and be knocked unconscious for a few hours."

"Well, don't do that. You'll get hurt. Besides..." She put her pastry bag down and turned to face him. "What are you so nervous about anyways? We've been with them before, nothing bad has ever happened. You managed to keep your cool last time we hung out with them too, so what's different now? We're just spending some time together again."

"I know, but... I was planning on taking Kairi to that one field, you know the one, and maybe... Uh... You know..." He scratched the back of his neck as he blushed. "Ask her out on a date...?"

Her eyes widened at the revelation and her face lit up with excitement. "Oh! You didn't tell us that last week! Do you have anything else prepared? Do you need help with something?" She clasped her hands together. "Maybe I can help you bake something special to give her."

"That would be great, Aqua. But I really don't want to get my hopes up, so I want to keep it pretty simple."

"What? Why would you do that?" She frowned.

"Because she'll most likely turn me down. She's probably not ready to see anyone in that way yet." He smiled sadly. "But I'd like to try, just in case she decides to give me a chance."

She hummed. "Maybe you're right..." She turned back to her work after a moment, picking back where she had left off, with only half of the muffins left to put frosting on. "Well... If you change your mind, we've still got some time to bake her a little something."

He sat there in silence for a couple of minutes before deciding to get up and walk to stand beside her. "Alright, what did you have in mind?"

 

Kairi and Riku came out of the ship. The young man was all shaken up and had to lean against the exterior of it for a bit before he could walk properly again. She had promised him somersaults, but he didn't think she'd actually do it. At least she hadn't crashed once.

"You're a terrible driver," he groaned.

"If I'm so terrible, how come we're here already?" She winked at him. "Don't forget to bring the food over!"

A faint wind was blowing around them. The day was warm, the sky was bright blue, dotted with white clouds. The smell of damp earth and grass filled the air, as well as the birds' singing. It was what could be described as a perfect day for a picnic.

The two friends walked together towards the castle in peaceful silence. When they almost reached the stairs up to the entrance they saw Aqua rushing down to meet them. She hugged them both in greeting, trying to catch her breath in between her sentences.

"So..." She started. "The boys are coming over... In a few minutes with the food... I will take you over to where we're gonna be eating!"

"Are you okay?" Kairi laughed a bit. "Do you need a moment to rest?"

"No, no, I'll be fine..." She dismissed the offer with her hand. "I was just running around the castle... Trying to get everything in order before you arrived... And trying to get the boys moving faster too... Since we heard the ship landing..." She clapped her hands together and smiled. "Now then! Follow me!"

The walk there was very enjoyable. The conversation was nice and casual, the wind refreshing and the trek shorter than they had expected. Once they got to a big clear space, with short grass and a stone path going around the edge, they spotted a huge blanket with a red Gingham pattern on it. They sat down and kept chatting for a while.

Not too long passed when they saw two figures in the near distance approaching. One was nearing them faster than the other, trying to wave while he carried some baskets and bags on his other arm. They waved back at Ven, smiling as he arrived beside them. He beamed as he greeted them and sat down on the blanket. Terra was there shortly after with some bags and bottles of his own.

As they started to get the food out, Aqua continued her previous conversation with Kairi as Terra started another with Riku. "So, you were saying a dance was coming up at your school in a few weeks? That sounds like a lot of fun! Are you planning on going?" She started pouring some orange juice in different glasses and handing each of them one.

Kairi received her glass with a thank you, took a sip and then answered. "Well, I was thinking of going with Riku at first, but then a lot of girls started asking him to take them, so I insisted he goes with one of them. It doesn't hurt to go separated just one year."

Aqua offered them all some sandwiches as she asked. "You're not going then?"

"I don't know, there's no one in particular I'd really wanna ask to go with. No one has asked me either, so I probably won't. Maybe I'll just go steal some food and then go back home." She laughed and took a bite out of her sandwich.

"Aw, I'm sure there are a lot of guys that would love to go with you. Maybe they're just too shy!"

"I find that a bit hard to believe. It's not like I stand out a lot." She shrugged and looked out at the clouds in the horizon. "I've got a lot of classmates that are way prettier and probably a lot more fun to hang out with than me..."

"Now that doesn't sound right!" Ven intervened. "You're really pretty- I mean really cool! I meant to say pretty cool..." He chugged his entire glass of orange juice and looked away.

Both girls laughed slightly. "Well, thank you, Ven," Kairi said. "But I guess I'll just have to see how these weeks go and decide then."

"Let me know how that goes!" Aqua smiled.

"Sure thing!" Kairi then tapped the silver haired boy on the shoulder and made a grabby hand when he looked back at her. He narrowed his eyes for a moment, still munching on a muffing, before he understood what she wanted. He handed her a yellow bag and she thanked him. "We brought some fruit from the islands to share!" She took out different containers with a variety of colorful fruits, cut up in little cubes, all separated by kinds. She opened each one as she named them. "We have Cherimoya, Pineapples, Plums, Kiwi, and Paopu! Here, try some!" She put them all down in the middle of the blanket.

"Woah! This is all from the islands?" Ven asked as he eyed all the fruit, mouth watering at the sight.

"Yeah, all fresh from the market this morning," Riku answered. "Picked it up myself since this redhead fell asleep too late and I couldn't get her out of bed to come with me." He glared playfully at her as she whistled and avoided eye contact.

"You know I'm usually always ready to go! I just had a bit of a rough night, that's all!" She explained with her arms crossed over her chest. "And don't go ratting me out on this one! I'm usually the one to wake you up, you night owl!"

He put his hands in the air in mock surrender. "Alright, you're right! You deserve at least one morning off."

"Of course I do." She said reaching forward to grab a piece of pineapple and popping it in her mouth.

Terra reached for some kiwi and, as soon as he tasted it, his eyes lit up. "Wow… This is the best fruit I've ever had, what did you say it was called again?" He asked, putting more in his mouth.

"It's kiwi, Terra. It's on the label, see?" Ven pointed to a tiny sticker on the side of the container. The brunette took some more of the green fruit. "And don't you eat it all! I wanna try it too!"

The older man picked up the tiny plastic box and held it over his head as his smaller friend tried to grab it. "Sorry, buddy. It's mine now."

As the boys continued their wrestling, Aqua decided to try the Paopu fruit. "These are so good! I wish we had them here." She tried some plums next. "All we've got are apples, oranges, some berries... You have such a wide variety, it's amazing!"

She took some of the paopu and leaned closer to her brown haired friend. "Here, Terra, try some of this one." She extended her hand to him. He pushed Ventus back with his free hand not holding the kiwi and opened his mouth to her.

Realization hit Kairi and Riku too late. Their eyes widened and they both cried out for her to stop, waving their hands frantically, just as he ate the fruit. The trio got startled at the outburst and looked back at them confused, a mix of horror and disbelief on the duo's faces.

"What's wrong?" Aqua asked, afraid to even move.

Kairi looked back at her best friend. "Should... Should we tell them?" She laughed a bit nervously.

"I don't... Know... Does it even work if he doesn't give her one back?" He put one hand to his chin in thought.

"I have no idea..."

"What happened?" Ven cut in. "Give what back?"

"Well..." Kairi started. "There's this legend that if two people share a Paopu with each other, their..." She covered her face with her hands. "Oh gosh! I can't!" She started laughing.

"Their destinies become intertwined," Riku finished. "But I don't know if it works if only one of them eats it. They're both supposed to do it together."

Aqua put a hand over her mouth, her face ablaze in embarrassment. Ven started snickering as Terra looked back at his blue haired friend, wide eyed and unable to form any words.

"If that was a thing, then why did you even bring the fruit in the first place?!" The young woman squeaked, putting both hands over her cheeks to try to conceal the heat in them.

"I didn't think it would actually come up!" Kairi laughed. "I thought everyone would eat by themselves, not feed each other!" She laughed harder, doubling over, trying to breathe as much as she could in that state.

"We are so sorry." Riku apologized. "But, hey, you know... It's just a legend?" He tried to offer as consolation.

Ventus just kept chuckling at how flustered his friends were. It was nice not being the only one nervous and red faced for once.

The rest of the picnic went on without any more incidents. They ate all the fruit, cookies, muffins and snacks they had brought. They spent some time sharing stories and pictures, because thanks to their new phones they could do that so easily now, having every memory stored in dozens of images.

Then, Ven looked at Aqua and she gave a very small nod with an encouraging smile. He looked over at Terra and he did the same. He took a deep breath.

"Hey, Kairi!" She looked up at him and tilted her head. "Wanna see something really cool?"

"Sure! What is it?" she asked.

He winked at her. "It's a surprise!" He got up from his seat, grabbing a blue bag as he did. "Follow me!"

She followed suit, getting up as well and shooting a questioning glance at her best friend. Riku just shrugged and gave her a thumbs up. She left her purse on the ground, not wanting to carry it around everywhere with her.

The three of them watched them walk away following the stone path. Once they disappeared down the hill, Riku stared their way a while longer.

"For how long?" He asked without looking away from the horizon.

"What?" Aqua looked at him, caught off guard by the question.

"How long has it been since he's known?" He finally turned to them, a serious expression across his face.

Terra hummed, trying to remember the exact date. "He told us around Winter, but he said it had been for a while already." He waved a hand through the air. "But don't worry, he's not going to do anything weird. He's just taking her to a cool field nearby, that's all."

"Well..." Added the woman hesitantly.

Terra turned to Aqua, suspicion on his face at her tone. "What do you mean 'well'?"

"He did say he wanted to ask her out on a date..." She shrugged smiling, though a bit uncomfortable at having to reveal Ven's special plan.

"What? Why didn't he tell me?"

"I don't know, maybe he just needed someone who's better at feelings and not a musclehead," she teased.

"Now that's just not fair. I'm good at giving advice too!" He crossed his arms indignantly.

"Then you can tell him that later. I'm not the one you should complain to," she replied.

"I don't think she's ready yet," Riku interrupted them. "I just hope he knows that so he's not too disappointed if she rejects his invitation."

Aqua cast a glance at him, then shook her head sadly. "He doesn't have high hopes, don't you worry too much." She sighed. "He doesn't think he has a chance either."

Riku nodded in understanding. He had a feeling that this situation could only end in heartbreak for them both.

 

Ventus stopped walking and turned to Kairi. They were very close to their destination, it was just behind a couple lines of trees they had to cross. "Okay, I'm going to need you to close your eyes."

She put a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow. "How will I walk then?" She shot playfully. "I'm just gonna walk face first into a tree."

"You can take my... Arm?" He offered.

She nodded, put her hand on the nook of his elbow, and closed her eyes. "Okay, lead the way!"

Oh, how he hoped he wasn't shaking. At least she wouldn't be able to see how red his face was while they walked there. The wind sure was fresh under the trees, the clean air helping his nerves slightly.

The sound of their steps on the soft dirt, the rustle of the leaves on the top of the trees, and the birds' chirps were the only sounds on the otherwise quiet noon.

It didn't take long for them to come out on the other side of the tree line. He slowed his walk to a stop and smiled.

"You can open your eyes now."

She did as he said very slowly. The sun fell on her face, blinding her for a few seconds. When her eyes adjusted to the light, they widened in amazement at the sight. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out as she admired the view.

Everywhere she looked before her was filled with flowers and butterflies fluttering by. Blues, purples, yellows, reds and whites dotted the field, filling it with life.

Kairi let go of Ven's arm as she slowly got closer to them. He followed behind as she kneeled in front of some small blue flowers that faded to white at the very center. She reached out and touched it, feeling the softness of its petals in between her fingers.

"Those ones are called Baby Blue Eyes." He said kneeling beside her. "And these ones..." He added reaching for another small flower, a white one with a purple dot at the end of each petal. "Are called Five Spot."

She looked around again. "This is all so beautiful! I don't know what to say!" She looked at him, her eyes sparkling. "Thank you so much for showing me!"

"No problem! I'm glad you like it..." He glanced her way before getting up. "Let me show you the other ones. I have to tell someone how many flower names I know..."

"Who did you learn them from?" She trailed after him.

"Aqua. She said I should know the flora and fauna of my home, but really she probably just wanted to talk about flowers..." He bent down, resting a hand on one knee. He took a slightly taller flower's stem, pulling it just a bit closer to himself, without ripping it out. "This is a Mealy Blue Sage. Hummingbirds love these." It was made up of lots of tiny violet flowers, all stacked up on top of each other on the stem.

Kairi inhaled deeply, catching the combined scent of all the flowers that lingered in the air. The place brought her a feeling of familiarity, but she wasn't exactly sure why. She welcomed the warmth on her chest nonetheless.

She looked at her friend. He sure looked good surrounded by so many bright colors, and he looked so happy too. She plucked a red flower off the ground, separating it from the rest of its siblings surrounding it.

"What's this one called?" She asked, extending her arm towards him so he could get a better look.

He straightened up and hummed. "I'm pretty sure that's a Drummond Phlox," he answered. She reached up and put it on his golden hair. His eyes widened and he looked away, rubbing behind his neck with his hand as his face flushed pink. He walked further in the flower field. "There's some more flowers I know over here."

'Be still, my heart,' he silently prayed. Her pleased look and radiant smile were almost too much for him. So he kept naming flowers, the only distraction he could think of at the moment.

"These ones are called, uh..." He swallowed and took a deep breath. "These are called Prim Roses and those are Rose Angels." He said pointing to some yellow flowers and then some purple ones.

She picked one of each and put them in his hair again, before putting some on hers as well. He laughed to try to hide how nervous he really was.

"Do you want to make flower crowns that badly?" He asked, grinning with an eyebrow raised.

"I don't know how to make them, so this is good enough." She shrugged and put another flower on her hair.

"I can teach you!"

"Really?" She asked surprised. "Wait, let me guess... Aqua?"

“Actually, it was Terra. Who was taught by Aqua a few years before that, so you could say I was indirectly taught by her.”

Ventus sat down on a small patch of grass, putting down the blue bag he had been carrying beside him. He plucked one whole stem covered in a line of white flowers with some yellow touches. "Spurred Snap Dragons make this a lot easier, since you don't need so many individual flowers to get the job done."

She sat down beside him as he showed her how to braid the stems together. She thought it was fairly easy at first, but it turned out to be a tad bit more complicated, especially as they started adding more flowers. 

Once they were done (after some struggle trying to keep everything in place) and had tied the ends together with some thread Ven had brought in his blue bag, Kairi got up on her knees and put her crown over Ventus’ head delicately, so as to not risk it falling apart.

When she sat back down he reached up over her head and did the same. Now, with both of them sporting white crowns, they enjoyed a small moment of silence as they looked out to the colorful field.

Should he do it now? Should he ask her? They were sharing such a nice moment. What if he just ruined it with his question? He went for another one instead.

“Do you think I can catch a butterfly?”

She looked him dead in the eye, an incredulous look on her face. “Ven, I saw you take one in your hands like it was nothing on that one video you sent me. You don't need to catch them, I bet they all just love being around you all the time.”

He laughed at that. It was true he was pretty good with animals, but it's not like they came to him naturally that often.

“Alright, sure. But do you think I can put one on my hair?”

“With or without the flower crown?”

“Without.”

“No way. There in no way you can pull that one off.”

“Wanna bet?” He smirked as he got up.

“Oh, you're on!” She got up as well. “If you win, what do you want?”

What didn't he want? “Nothing.”

“Seriously?” She slumped her shoulders and looked at him in disbelief.

“Yeah, really! The real question is what would you like if I lose.”

“Oh, geez, well… how about…” she put a finger over her lip and rested her other hand on her hip. “I don't know, a piggy back ride when we go back to the others?”

He almost had a heart attack right then and there just by the thought of that. He couldn't picture himself being that close to her without fainting.

“I don't think I can do that! I'm better at speed than strength!” He waved both his hands in front of himself. He couldn't let her do that if he wanted to live.

“Alright, then just give me a thousand munny or something…”

“Okay, then I choose ‘Or something’.” he smiled mischievously as he quickly put his flower crown down.

“Now, hold on-!”

He ran away laughing, making butterflies fly up around him as he passed by. It almost looked like the flowers had risen and decided to dance around Ven with as much enthusiasm as he was showing.

She had the small impression of needing to take a picture, but it went away as soon as it came, just lingering on the farthest corner of her mind. She ran after him.

He kept running away from her. The wind blew around him as he kept his speed up, boosting it with a small Aero whenever she almost caught up. She screamed at him frustrated every time.

He finally got tired and flopped on the grass, accidentally squishing some flowers under him. He was laughing breathlessly. 

Kairi sat down beside him as she tried to catch her breath as well. Her hair was all over the place (probably mostly because of his spells), but she still had her flowers adorning her head. She looked so darn adorable that he had to look away.

“Well, what do you know? You are a butterfly magnet!” She giggled.

He made a small confused sound at that. She asked him for his phone, but told him not to move too fast. He did as she requested and she took a picture. She turned the phone around to show him a photo of himself with an orange butterfly on his hair.

He reached up slowly and felt around his hair carefully until he found the small insect. He tried taking it on one finger, but it flew away before he could do it.

“Guess I win, huh?” He grinned up at her.

“Guess so!” She nodded. “Are you sure there's nothing you want me to do?”

He thought about it for a moment. He wasn't going to make her agree to his question if he used this chance for that, so he kept that one to himself. What else could he ask her...? Oh! Of course! He knew what she could do! “You know what? There might be one thing!” He sat up. “We gotta go back to get my bag, though.”

They walked back, and it turned out some butterflies did follow Ventus. Why was that? Who knows, maybe they just liked being around him. She didn't comment on it, she just smiled to herself.

She took another deep breath of the fresh perfumed air. It was a nice break of the salty smell of the sea. It's not like she disliked her island's sent or anything, but sometimes it was nice to have something different for a while and come back to the familiarity of home.

When they arrived, he picked up his bag and took out a small blanket. He unfolded it and laid it out on the grass. He sat down and took a container out, two forks and a plastic plate.

“What? We're doing a second picnic?” She asked, sitting down on the blanket as well.

“Not really. Just thought you wouldn't like sitting on dirt while you ate.” he opened up the container to reveal two pieces of pie.

“Aqua helped me bake this. I just brought a little bit, so you can eat more when we go back if you'd like.” He picked up one of the portions and put it on the plate. He offered it to her.

She took it from his hand. “So you want me to eat what you baked? That's what you want me to do because you won the bet?”

“Yup!” He smiled and offered her a fork.

“Alright, doesn't look too hard. What a wasted opportunity though, I probably would've agreed to eat anyways.” She cut a smaller piece with her fork and ate it.

“Sorry if it's not so good. It's my first time baking a pie. I have baked cookies before, but it's not the same…” He picked up his own fork. “The mess is way smaller when we make cookies…” he mumbled.

“What do you mean your first time? This is delicious!” she said before taking a bigger bite out of the pie. “Is this lemon flavor?”

“Yeah… it- it is…” He stuffed his face with the dessert. He almost choked, but he recovered quickly as if nothing had happened.

They finished the small sweet and put everything back in the bag. Kairi asked him if they could do some more flower crowns before they went back, so they stayed a bit longer.

A couple butterflies stopped to take a break on Ven's hair. Lady luck smiled at her at that moment as she extended her hand and one of them crawled on her finger. He took his phone out and snapped a picture before it flew away.

“Ven, can I bring Riku here next time? I want to show him how beautiful everything is!” She asked.

“Of course! Anytime.” He smiled softly.

“Can I also take some more flowers home?”

“Sure! As long as you don't plant the seeds, I think it'll be fine.” He nodded

They picked up their crowns. Kairi made herself a bouquet of flowers to put in a vase at home. Ven took his bag, and prepared to go. She took one last look at the place before her, breathing in the aroma of it.

Ventus debated if he should do it, if he should ask the question his heart so desperately wanted to know the answer to. He should probably do it while they were still alone, while they were far from the others and there wasn't the embarrassment of answering such a thing in front of other people. No pressure from anyone to answer anything in particular, just their hearts speaking in that private moment they were sharing. It was now or never. He took a deep breath.

“Hey, Kairi…?”

 

Terra stopped talking as he saw the two teenagers approaching the gummiship. Kairi had a big smile on her lips, while Ven simply had a calm one. They both had freshly remade flower crowns adorning their hair.

Aqua and Terra looked at him with inquisitive eyes, but he didn't say anything. Meanwhile, Riku was having his ear talked off about the wonderful field they were at and how he should go see it some time and how there were like a million butterflies. He only nodded, smiled, and asked a few questions.

He said it was time to go, so Kairi went ahead and gave Aqua a crown made of Five Spot flowers, and Terra one made of yellow Prim Roses. They hugged goodbye and she thanked Ven one last time for the wonderful time and beautiful place. He just said it was no problem, handed her a small container with some lemon pie to take home and hugged her goodbye too. 

Riku waved at them all and thanked them for the food (while Kairi added her same thanks as well). The trio thanked them for the delicious fruits in return. She put a crown made of red Drummond Phloxes on Riku's head while they walked back in their ship.

Once it disappeared into the sky, both grownups turned to their younger friend. They bombarded him with questions that he had no chance to answer as they shot one after the other.

“Guys, come on! One at a time!” He raised his hands trying to calm them down.

“Did she like the lemon pie we baked?” Aqua asked first.

“Yes, she liked it a lot. Thank you for helping me with that!”

“Did she make these?” Terra asked next as he pointed up at their crowns. Ventus nodded.

There was a small silence before the next question.

“Did you ask her… for a date?”

Another silence before he answered. He smiled sadly and shook his head. “No… I was going to do it, but instead I just thanked her for spending time with me today. I… I couldn't do it…”

“Why not?”

“I don't know, I guess…” He sighed and looked away. “I guess I just wanted her to be happy today and … I didn't think my question would have that effect exactly.” He shrugged, looking at his friends in the eye. “Maybe next time…”

They started walking back to the castle as they kept talking about everything else. Aqua asked if he had told Kairi all the names of the flowers, Ven told them about the butterflies, and Terra talked about what Riku had said about the Islands and school back there. Ven even dared to tease them about the fruit incident earlier, making them get flustered and push him away playfully.

When they arrived at the castle he excused himself, saying he would lay on his bed now and that if he didn't do it at that exact moment that he would explode and fall dead to the ground. He assured them they wouldn't like cleaning up whatever was left of him. They laughed and let him go.

Once in his room he closed the door and collapsed on his bed. His Chirithy poofed into existence and fell on it as well. It walked up to him, flopped on his stomach and looked up at him.

“So how did your hanging out plans go? How was your day?” The small spirit asked.

Ventus sighed, with a dreamy look on his face. “Simply amazing…”

 

Riku drove on the way back this time. He put autopilot on and turned around to his friend, who was still talking animatedly about the day, but hadn't touched upon the subject that had him worried the most.

“So, did he ask you about it?” He interrupted her rambling, with a small frown on his face. “I'm guessing by your good mood that you said yes”

“What?” She paused.

“That you said yes.” He repeated.

“Yes what? What are you talking about?” She tilted her head and furrowed her brow in confusion.

“Did he…? He didn't ask you?”

“Ask me what? If I had a good time? If I liked the pie? Because I answered yes to those two, but I don't know if that's what you mean.”

“Huh… Guess he didn't do it in the end…” He turned back towards the steering wheel and turned off autopilot. “Well, forget about it. I'm glad you had fun.”

“Wait! What didn't he do? What do you mean?” She got up from her seat and shook him slightly. “Come on! Tell me!”

“Nothing! It was nothing important.”

“No, don't lie to me! You were worried earlier when you asked.”

“It was not a big deal, don't worry. He just wanted to ask you… for a favor.” He hoped she would buy it. He wasn't the best liar ever either. “He probably solved what he needed already.”

“Really? What did he need?” She asked.

“I don't know, he didn't tell me.”

“Oh... okay. Maybe I'll ask him later about it.” She said out loud while also making a mental note about it.

“Sure.”

They flew home, back to the Destiny Islands. When Kairi got back to her house, she put the pie on the fridge and the bouquet she had picked on a glass vase in the middle of the table. She was very happy with it, especially since the smell reminded her of the wonderful day she had had for a whole extra week.


End file.
